Turkish Ambassador’s View

Jan. 12, 2016

To the Editor:

I was surprised when I saw your editorial on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, since, shortly after the president’s reference to “Hitler’s Germany,” the Office of the President released an extensive explanation of how these remarks ought to be interpreted (“Mr. Erdogan Crosses Yet Another Line,” Jan. 6).

President Erdogan has openly denounced on many occasions all forms of racism and xenophobia, including anti-Semitism. He has also explained that the reference to “Hitler’s Germany” was not an apology for this horrendous regime but rather a way to show that without the right checks and balances, parliamentary regimes can also be dragged toward totalitarianism.

The editorial then jumps into denouncing Turkey’s fight against the terrorism of the P.K.K. I find it remarkable that at the same time you state that this fight is being waged by “exploiting the group’s reckless decision to break a two-year-old cease-fire,” thus acknowledging that the P.K.K. is at the root of the problem.

As for your comment on the full integration of Kurds into Turkish politics, Turkey has already made huge progress in that regard. There are more than 120 parliamentarians of Kurdish origin in Turkey from various political parties. Mehmet Simsek, deputy prime minister, who happened to be in Washington on the day your editorial ran, told a big crowd that he was a proud Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin from a humble background, and this did not constitute an impediment to becoming deputy prime minister.